AUTHOR=Mordecai Gideon J. , Hewson Ian 

TITLE=Coronaviruses in the Sea

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2020.01795

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2020.01795

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<p>Interest in coronaviruses because of the 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has generated concern about their occurrence and persistence in aquatic habitats. Coronaviruses are not quantitatively significant constituents of marine virioplankton. Members of the <italic>Nidovirales</italic> (to which human coronaviruses belong) infect marine mammals, teleosts and possibly invertebrates, and human coronaviruses may persist in marine plankton receiving wastewater effluent. However, virions likely experience significant particle and infectivity decay rates in surface seawater, similar to other enveloped RNA viruses.</p>